In recent years, electronic financial market information and trading systems have gained a widespread acceptance. For example, electronic trading systems have been created which facilitate the trading of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, currency, futures, or other suitable financial instruments. Many of these electronic trading systems use a bid/offer process in which bids and offers are submitted to the systems by a passive side. These bids and offers are hit and lifted (or taken) by an aggressive side. For example, a passive trader may submit a “bid” to buy a particular number of thirty-year U.S. Treasury Bonds at a given price. In response to such a bid, an aggressive trader may submit a “hit” in order to indicate a willingness to sell bonds to the first trader at the given price. Alternatively, a passive side trader may submit an “offer” to sell a particular number of the bonds at the given price, and then the aggressive side trader may submit a “lift” (or “take”) in response to the offer to indicate a willingness to buy bonds from the passive side trader at the given price. In such trading systems, the bid, the offer, the hit, and the lift (or take) may be collectively known as “orders.” Thus, when a trader submits a bit, the trader is said to be submitting an order.
In general, financial market information systems typically display various pieces of information related to a particular financial market. The pieces of information are usually displayed in separate windows or screens on a monitor. Comparative information, to the extent it is provided, is offered in one or two dimensions. For example, it is common for financial information systems to display two-dimensional graphs of information relating to the market for a single financial instrument. Further, if a user of the system wishes to conduct electronic trading based on the information, the trading activity is typically initiated in a trading application separate from the application providing the financial market information.